Thursday, March 19, 2009

Q: Name a female host of a popular TV program. Rearrange the letters of her first name to name a god in mythology. Rearrange the letters in her last name to name a type of god that this god is not. Who is the TV host and what are the anagrams?

So you've looked at this week's NPR puzzle and you've decided you need some help. Okay, before you light a signal fire, the puzzle really isn't that difficult. So that you don't waste time, I'll tell you that it is *not* the Babylonian god Marduk, but you can try anagrams of that if you like...

Edit: There were several hints in my post. I used the word "SO" a couple times. Also, if you read the first letter of each sentence you get S.O.S. I also mentioned help and a signal fire a few times which again points to S.O.S. That all leads to the name of the person and her show. Next the Roman equivalent of Zeus was Jupiter. And the Babylonian equivalent of Jupiter was Marduk.

... and why the apparent "need" to state in the puzzle the word "female" at all? Why not just state, "Name a host of a popular TV program, yada, yada, yada."

Could be / IS ... cuz she regularly, on her show, demonstrates for us all WHY, if not stated, nearly almost all persons' thinking goes first and straight to patriarchally, androcentrically and AUTOMATICALLY thinking on hosts' ... male.

Same as why in nearly all broadcasts and writings, media -- and most others in adulthood as well -- stupidly go on and on about the "woman farmer," or the "female researcher" or the "woman preacher," or the "female financier," or the "woman anchor," even the "female prisoner,", even the "female lesbian!" Stupid.

Blue of Central Iowa, maybe Will wanted to make the puzzler a little easier by specifying the sex of the television host. You can find sexism in the puzzler if you really want to, but I'm sure it wasn't intended. Besides, the word host implies male. Would you have preferred that Will had worded it as television hostess?

I saw a list recently that had the answer in the #1 spot when considered one way, and the #5 position when considered another way. Incidentally, the list was shortened recently when the last position was eliminated.

Geri, you're absolutely right. I didn't know anything about her before reading the Wikipedia entry. Pretty amazing how she lost the money that was lent to her by a customer, then managed to get it back so she could repay him. Cool story.

It's after the deadline so it's okay to explain your hints. Timmy had a similar idea to mine, including the word "stupider" in his comment. My comment about a list was referencing a list of planets. Jupiter is the largest planet in size and the fifth planet in position from the sun. Obviously Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Zeus.

(a) because it is true and a fun story (b) because it allowed me to type BartiROMO and RAMONE, which are alliterations of Suze ORMAN if not outright anagrams -- and both names also hint at ROMAN, the second answer, and (c) it allowed me to mention CNBC, Orman's home network.